lab rat

I'm off to Williamstown for my 5-year reunion.

So far my summer here has been spent fruitlessly applying for summer jobs (5 coffeeshops, 1 bookstore, and 2 bars,) and doing Psych studies! There's a website where you can see all the postings. I've done 11 studies, most of which pay $8 an hour- a lucrative business.

Highlights:
-Amnesia study: watching purple 3D shapes dance around the screen together or separately, then deciding whether you've seen particular combinations of shapes before.
-Baseball study: predicting how many runs will be scored in the inning. Bases loaded and one out? 1.6 runs.
-Reading eyetracking study: the guy said I have an "INCREDIBLE verbal working memory," which pretty much made my day. OK, summer.

Lowlights:
-"Flexible Decision Making" study: looking at mini planes on a radar screen to decide which is the most "threatful." Over 500 mind-numbing trials.
-Social Cognition study: Imagine that you lost your keys. Should you have put the keys in a safe place? -yes/no- In the future, will you put your keys in a safe place? -yes/no- The funny part of this one was that after lost keys, burned tongue, late to class, etc., they had "contracted sexually transmitted disease." Gah! Should you have practiced safe sex? -yes/no-
-Another intonation study with undergrad-level sound quality. "Put the CAP to the LEFT of the star. Now PUT the cat to the right of the TRIANGLE." I almost fell asleep.